"We are focusing on people who have established that they are already very good scientists and are about to start or at the beginning of an independent career." --Fotis Kafatos, European Research Council President.

"Those who succeed are well-grounded people who have seen success and believe they can do it too. They are not the type of people who worry too much or are easily intimidated," says Virginia Tech professor Michael Hochella.

Jones believes that senior scientists have "lost a sense of accountability to the next generation insofar as all of our interests in them are self interests ... so thatour career can get advanced but not necessarilytheir career."

"I produce 10 data points that completely undermine what everybody thinks they know about the archaeological record here. It was really important and really interesting, and almost nobody believed me." -Joan Brenner Coltrain